How To Get Through Your First Table Read?

It was the end of my two-hour coaching session with John Judy at the Theatre Lab. I’m rearranging all the pages of my script back in order when John asks if I’d done a table read with the current cast. I respond with, “No I’ve done a few rehearsals with two of the four cast members via zoom due to all of our conflicting schedules”. He immediately emphasizes that zoom rehearsals are not as effective as in-person rehearsals and that it was important to get all the cast members in one room to say the lines and see if they sound right.

In a way I understood his reasoning because at the first shoot I felt awkward working with three of the cast members because I hadn’t met them in-person before that day. It was like meeting complete strangers. Whereas with the one female cast member my comfort level was high because we managed to squeeze in an in-person rehearsal at Politics and Prose in DC. So, I knew I couldn’t make that mistake again.

Before scheduling anything I made sure to finalize the shots/scenes for the second shoot with the director of photography (DP) so I could know which cast members would need to be on set and at the table read. Knowing that a majority of the cast are not only working actors and freelancers but also 9-5 working professionals I managed to schedule a Saturday afternoon with 3 of them. Then, I booked a small meeting room in DC on Peerspace for 4 hours giving each cast member 1-1.5-hour timeslots.

Next, I did some research on YouTube on how a table read process takes place and I found myself watching the season 4 table read for Black-ish, the season 8 table read for Game of Thrones and the season 5 table read for Breaking Bad. I couldn’t help but notice how sort-of in-character the cast members were when saying their lines further making me ask the question is there a real difference between a table read and a rehearsal?

Then, I also noticed that the table read would need to be recorded but unfortunately the videographer I knew who would be able to work within my budget was going to be out of town that weekend. So, that responsibility was on me, and I only had a ring light and cellphone to work with. Let me tell you, I regret it. It was a disaster trying to be a camerawoman because as the cast came in for their scheduled time slots my phone storage kept getting full stopping the video recording at abrupt times. So, I had to keep deleting apps, pictures, and videos to free up space.

Did I mention it was HOT that day? Carrying and setting up a ring light, refreshments, and scripts from your car to a meeting room before cast members show up was no easy task. It was a hike!

Doing my best to deal with my irritability, the cast and I realized that as were saying some of the lines out loud to each other, some of it actually didn’t sound right verbally. So, we began making tweaks, cutting out certain parts of scenes to make the flow sound more believable and straight to the point all in a building with no air condition.

Goodness!

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Other posts you may be interested in:

• How To Begin Raising Money For Your Film?
• Why A Film Treatment Is Important?

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Check out the table read below.

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